It was night, and the moon was high in the sky. Nopony was outside and all that could be heard was the sound of crickets. Normally, this was everything that happened at night in Trottingham. Shops were closed, stalls had disappeared from the streets and the pony-shaped marking on the moon looked down at it all.
Cozy Glow had read that the pony was the old alicorn princess, Luna, but after being consumed by the darkness and battling her sister, Celestia, she was dubbed Nightmare Moon and so she was banished to the moon by the Princess of the Sun using the Elements Of Harmony. The little filly thought that it was quite mean of Celestia to do that to her poor sister. All the alicorn wanted was to be noticed for her special talent.
Speaking of, Cozy had still not found her special purpose in life and was a blank flank. Sometimes, she wondered if her special purpose was being a mess-up, or maybe being alone was. But still, the Cutie Mark never came. This had made her father angry.
Match Smoke was a bold, red pegasus with an orange mane and his Cutie Mark was a match that was lit. He had blue eyes. Whenever Cozy saw him he was either yelling and hitting her, or drinking his beer. Match was a pony who sold matches and what the pink filly thought was brown sticks with white ends. Ponies would buy the sticks with matches, put them in their mouths, light them up and then smoke would come out of their mouths. Cozy didn't know what they were, nor why her father yelled at her mother.
Amber Glow was an orange pegasus with a green mane and her Cutie Mark was a typewriter. She had red eyes. She was the secretary of a famous scientist called Dr. Rose Horn. Dr. Rose Horn gave notes and Amber would write them up. But she was aslso in charge of writing speeches for the unicorn scientist, and if Rose Horn didn't like it, she had to write it all over again. Cozy noticed that happened a lot. She remembered when Dr. Rose Horn came to visit the school and had read one of her mother's speeches. All of her classmates loved it. Unfortunately, the school's fillies and colts were not always this enthusiastic about ponies who knew a lot.
Some ponies wonder why kids are so self-conscious, here's the answer.
If a filly or colt is smart, they're a nerd, if they aren't the best in class they're dumb. If the teacher likes them they're the "teacher's pet", if the teacher doesn't like them they're "unimportant". If they haven't broken any rules they're a "goody-four-hooves", if they have then they're a bad pony. If they go everywhere with they're parents/careers they're foalish, if they don't then they're unloved.
Cozy was bullied for all the former above, except the last one; that one's the latter. They weren't wrong either. Her father abused her and her mother doesn't even notice her most of the time.
The young filly sighed.
"Maybe my special talent is being invisible." She closed her curtains and hopped into her bed.
THE NEXT MORNING
"COZY GLOW! GET YOUR SORRY FLANK DOWN HERE NOW!" Match shouted.
Groaning, Cozy dragged herself out of bed and quickly brushed her mane and teeth before heading downstairs to the kitchen.
Her father looked up from his newspaper and grunted when she came in and ordered, "Eggs. Toast. Now."
The filly, needing no explanation to what she needed to do, grabbed a frying pan, lit the stove with a match, cracked an egg or two into it and put some bread in the toaster.
"Got a Cutie Mark yet?" Match asked.
Cozy shook her head.
He grunted again and pulled the newspaper closer to him, "Figures."
Just then, Amber Glow ran in with paper in her mouth. Cozy was about to greet her when her mother snatched up another piece of paper and sprinted out again.
"Are you burning my breakfast?!" Match shouted at Cozy.
At the smell of smoke, the young filly whipped around and quickly turned everything off.
She winced when the toast came out burnt. Her father would surely give her a beating. She put both eggs on top in order to hide it.
Cozy Glow picked up the plate dropped it on the table and flew out the house after picking up her saddle-bag, shouting something about going to school.
The pink pegaus was distressed. Maybe if she left it, her father would forget about the incident and she could just do her homework for the night.
Cozy's eyes widened in realization. She didn't do her homework!
Maybe she could convince Miss OakHoof she was too busy helping her mother with her work.
"Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket." She murmured.
The filly hid behind a tree near the school and fished out a piece of paper. Carefully, she used a quill and imitated her mother's mouth-writing. When she was done she folded it up and placed it back in her saddle-bag.
She saw her bullies after she poked her head out from behind the tree. She carefully prowled past them.
"Hey! Cozy Cow! Where d'ya think you're goin'?" She winced and recognized the voice imediatly.
Cozy Glow turned around and saw the School Bully, Mallet.
The colt was a unicorn and was black with a grey mane, his cutie mark was two mallets forming a cross over a green shield. He sneered and picked Cozy up by the tail in his red aura, it matched his eyes.
"Oh, golly! Good morning, Mallet! Hey... isn't it your birthday today?"
The colt nodded proudly. "Yeah! And I got presents because I have parents who are rich and actually care about me."
Cozy almost growled in anger but thought about what she said next.
"Well, gee, Mallet. It sure would be a shame if you made fun of me today."
Mallet raised an eyebrow. "And why, may I ask, is that?"
"Well, gosh, Mallet, what would happen if your parents found out about this... today?" She gasped to add to her act.
"They might take away all of your presents!"
Mallet's eyes widened as she said, "Now we wouldn't want that now, would we?"
"Good point..." Mallet trailed off. but Cozy wasn't finished.
"Oh, if they do that... they might not even care about you anymore!"
The bully growled made his aura disappear and ran inside the School just in time for the bell.
Cozy smirked. "Today is onto a great start."
"So I'm hoping you all did your homework on the Ponams?" Miss OakHoof questioned the class. They all replied yes in unison except Cozy.
"What about you, Cozy Glow?"
"I have a note." Was all the filly said. The teacher read it through.
"I see... Very well, Cozy Glow. Just... bring it in for Monday."
As Miss OakHoof continued with her lesson, Cozy zoned out and started thinking of what might happen when she got home. Would her father be mad? Would he hit her? Oh, golly, oh, gosh! What to do? What to do? Don'tpanicdon'tpanicdon'tpanicdon'tpanicdon'tpanicdon'tpanicdon't--
Her thoughts were interrupted when the bell rang.
"Alright class! Go to lunch and I'll see you later."
Lunch? What about recess? And I couldn't have zoned out for two lessons and recess could I?
Cozy realized that she had her eyes on an open book. Miss OakHoof normally let her stay and read during recess so the teacher must have thought she was doing that.
She placed her items in her saddle-bag and walked outside.
Once she was there, she when to her corner and ate her packed lunch. She was the only pony who came to this corner because it was so dark and gloomy and not in the sun, so she dubbed it her's.
She chewed on her hay sandwich and saw Mallet showing off his presents to the rest off the school. He was on stage and everypony was watching him.
Cozy rolled her eyes and got out her oat biscuit.
In the crowd, Velvet Cushion and Crystal Hoof were fangirling over him.
"Oh, please, he's not that impressive." Cozy mumbled.
For the rest of lunch everypony sat there and all lunch Cozy watched from afar.
She trotted to the class when it was time to go back in.
The last lesson of the day was maths. Cozy didn't like maths all to much so she read a book instead during the lesson it was much more interesting.
At the end of the day Cozy flew out of the prison called School and to the other one called Home.
She opened the door and saw all the lights off.
Cozy heard heavy hoof steps come behind her. A rough hoof pushed her forwards and she tripped on a loose floorboard, causing her to fall over.
She heard the door being closed and locked
"YOU BURNED MY BLOODY BREAKFAST AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME????!!!!"
Cozy gulped. "Oh, gosh."